Benefactors & Troublemakers
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day 892a: Rachel and Puck are in charge of their group, and if they want them to be happy they need to do a couple of things.


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 42nd cycle. Now cycle 43!_

* * *

><p><em><strong>INTRODUCING "CHEAT SHEET" - <strong>If you want to know ahead of time when a certain series will be updated next, just reassemble the link below and check out the list, save it, print it, bookmark it, whatever you need!  
>Go to: <span>gleekathon [dot] tumblr [dot] com [slash] cheatsheet<span>_

_** UPDATED WITH CYCLE 43 CHEAT SHEET ** Check it out to find out about **shift days**!_

* * *

><p><em><strong>This is a shift day [see above].<strong> There will be another upload this afternoon: The Cautionary Tale of Lucy Collins, chapter 3._

* * *

><p><strong>"Benefactors and Troublemakers"<br>Rachel/Puck, Rent company, Will, Sue, Lauren  
>Project No Day But Today (following 'Money Money') <strong>

They both knew some of their situation didn't sit well with their troupe. A lot of it was veiled in uncertainty, in secrets and the potential for trouble. But they carried on, and Rachel liked to believe it was because they knew she would never lead them in error… at least not intentionally. Still when Puck presented the idea, she couldn't ignore it.

"They just need to be reassured," he had guessed. "It's like when my little sister gets scared at night and she won't go to bed. I have to open the closet door, look inside, look under the bed, make sure there's nothing there, check the window, turn on the night light… When she feels safe, then she goes to bed."

"So we need to look in the closet and under the bed," Rachel declared.

"Or the show version of it, yeah," he nodded. She had given it some thought, and the whole thing summarized down to two actions, two people.

The first was the threat side. The biggest one of those was not the school principal, as much as Figgins could hope he pulled the strongest strings. Really the thing they needed to worry about was Coach Sylvester and her ever finding out before they were ready for people to find out. About half their girls were Cheerios, and Sue's finding out would all but certainly mean losing them. And if that wouldn't be enough, then she'd probably make sure losing their Cheerio contingent would topple the whole production. So now what they needed to do was not only to make sure she didn't have suspicions, but also to make sure she wouldn't start getting them.

"How are we going to do that?" Rachel asked as she and Puck walked toward school one morning.

"Could ask Zizes to bug her office," he suggested. "It'd be good for all of us, the musical, Glee Club…"

"If she finds them, won't we get in even more trouble?"

"She couldn't trace it back to us," he shrugged. "Only Zizes, maybe, but she won't crack and give us up. Besides, after her parents threatened to sue with the whole wrestling team thing, she's kind of untouchable with Figgins." Rachel considered for a moment, then sighed and nodded.

"Okay, go for it. Now the other thing…"

"Schuester?" he asked.

The second half of 'Operation Night Light,' as they'd come to call it, was not so much about reassurance as it was about proof. Since the showcase presented to Schuester, where Brittany had uncovered the real motivation behind his telling them no, the whole thing had mostly been theory. They'd understood that Will couldn't openly support them, not with the school, but he wasn't telling them to stop. In the weeks since the showcase, there had been zero communication between them and the teacher where this secret production was concerned. They knew he knew about it, they knew he'd told them no, but he hadn't inquired to make sure they had stopped, hadn't mentioned it in any way, and they hadn't said a thing to him either. As far as they could tell, Brittany had had it right… But maybe what they really needed was proof. This would be something else the co-directors had to do for the group.

"I think we should test him."

"How?" Puck asked.

"We… somehow… let him understand that we need something, nothing too extravagant, and we see if he responds." She could see him agreeing, but at the same time wondering…

"What kind of thing?"

"Information…"

That afternoon they had Glee Club practice. When Rachel had given the signal, while they were in the middle of rehearsing a new routine, Puck had distracted Will with a question while she'd gone and slipped a paper in the teacher's bag. She returned among the group, certain a good number of them had seen her, but that was okay – that was what she wanted. They would know what it was about, so they would be primed to find out with her how things turned out.

Two days later, Rachel had been standing at her locker, headphones on, when a hand tapped her shoulder and she jumped, turning back… "Puck!" she breathed, pulling one ear bud out. "You scared me…"

"Sorry. That must be one good song, you've been standing there for ten minutes, you're going to be late for class." She shook her head.

"It's not a song," she told him, turning and handing him the ear bud. He put it in his ear, paused, frowned…

"Is that Coa…" he started, but she shushed him. "It's the…" he motioned and she nodded – the bug. Lauren had pulled through for them, for the right price.

"Nothing good so far, just more proof not to get on her bad side," she shook her head.

"When were we ever on her good side?" Puck pointed out.

"I'll keep listening, but I definitely think we're in the clear… and did I just jinx us?" she winced.

"Superstitious?"

"Hey, I'm a performer," was her excuse, and he didn't question her any further.

"We're fine," he insisted and, at her face, "What, it's a double, so they cancel each other out, alright?"

"Fine," she smiled.

She continued listening, every once in a while. Sometimes it would be Puck who would listen as well, but over all they were fairly confident that she had no idea about them. Rachel still floated the idea that maybe they needed to keep her busy with something else, so she wouldn't focus on them long enough to work it out.

Then one afternoon, on her way to pick up her headphones from her locker to listen in again, she'd found an envelope had been slipped through, it was small, almost like the kind you'd find stuck to a floral arrangement. Rachel looked around, making sure there was no one looking. When she opened it she found it contained a business card, the manager of the local theater. She turned it over, finding Schuester's familiar handwriting.

"_He owes me one. Work it out with him."_

She smiled, pressing the card between her hands. Her request had been simple. They needed access to a proper stage, with lighting and all, as they had in the auditorium, without having to be there. She knew the group was hesitant about having to rehearse so close to a number of people who could find them out and sell them out, so they'd been looking into securing a new place to practice. Now, thanks to Will, they had one. And they had more than that… they had proof he was with them, as much as he could be. He was giving them his blessing.

THE END

* * *

><p><strong>PLEASE READ: <strong>This summer, July 17th will be Day 1000 of Gleekathon!  
>As such, of course, I'll want to do something special for it.<br>If you have ideas or suggestions or anything, with regards to that,  
>please send them my way, <em>preferably in a private message<em>,  
>but if not then whatever way is convenient for you.<br>I'd really appreciate it, you know I like to involve you guys :D

* * *

><p><strong>AN: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.  
><strong>**In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are  
><strong>******always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!******


End file.
